[Book Review] If you read this, you will surely feel a sense of closeness to Natsume Soseki
I think this is true for anything, but when something becomes difficult to obtain, you suddenly find yourself desperately wanting things that you didn't care about before.
In my case, since coming to America, I've started craving Japanese sweets and going out of my way to make them by hand while following recipes (even though I was definitely a fan of Western sweets when I lived in Japan), and I've even bought specialty soy sauce for more than double the price it would cost in Japan (even though I didn't care what kind of soy sauce I used when I lived in Japan).
One such thing is reading in Japanese. Well, it's not difficult to get Japanese books even in America if they are e-books, but since the time I spend using Japanese in my daily life is limited, the reaction to that is an urge to immerse myself completely in Japanese.
Because of that, my reading volume has increased since coming to America. While reading various things, I found an interesting piece of writing the other day. It is a short essay by Natsume Soseki. It is really short, and you can read it in about 10 minutes.
In this short piece, Natsume Soseki talks about his thoughts on the job of being a writer, his life as an author, and his particularities when writing. A great writer, often called a literary master, reveals his true self as a writer. I think that for anyone who writes something, in any form, there are parts that will particularly pique your interest.
I will list a few parts that I found interesting below.
On writing and selling books
Honestly, if I could, I would rather not write books to sell. When it comes to selling, a certain amount of greed emerges, and thoughts like wanting to improve one's reputation or gain popularity appear without one realizing it. The character, and the quality of the book, tend to become somewhat vulgar. Ideally, it would be best to publish at my own expense and distribute it for free to those with similar interests, but I am poor, so I cannot do that.
Wow, even though he was a best-selling author who took the world by storm, he felt this way about writing and selling books.
I only write about things I like on Note, and I don't sell what I write like an author or a professional writer, but I understand what he means. You can replace the act of "selling" with gaining the number of "likes" or "followers" on Note. If you write with the goal of "wanting to get many likes" or "wanting to rapidly increase the number of followers," you drift away from what you originally wanted to write, and you end up not liking it. More than that, in my case, it stops being fun.
Even a writer as great as Natsume Soseki was trying to focus purely on the stories born within him while excluding as much as possible the irresistible desire to gain evaluation from others. I feel a bit of closeness to him.
On writing speed
It usually takes three or four hours to write one installment. However, sometimes it takes from morning until night and even then, one installment is not finished. When I think I have plenty of time, it takes a long time. When I start thinking that I only have time in the morning, I can finish it in that limited time.
The "one installment" mentioned here refers to one installment of a serialized newspaper novel. When I looked up the character count, it seems it was about four pages of modern manuscript paper. In other words, about 1600 characters. Taking three or four hours to write that is by no means fast. Well, perhaps it includes processes beyond just writing 1600 characters, such as doing research and working out the plot including future developments.
However, on the other hand, there is a story that he wrote one of his masterpieces, "Botchan," all at once in about two weeks. It is said that if you convert it to a daily amount, he was writing about 17 to 18 pages of manuscript paper per day. Is the way of writing different from a serialized novel? I don't really know.
In any case, it doesn't necessarily seem thathe was writing at a god-like speed that an ordinary person could never catch up with (at least as far as reading the quoted part above). Also, I read the part about how it takes longer to write when you have a lot of time while nodding in agreement. Here too, I felt a bit of closeness to the literary master.
On where to write
It is best to write in a place where the sunlight hits the shoji screen, but I cannot do that in this house, so sometimes I take my desk out to the sunny veranda and pick up my brush while bathing in the sunlight from above. (Omitted) When I write like this, it seems to go well. Bright places are good for everything.
Regarding where to write, it seems that whether it was bright or not was his point of particularity. When I read this part, I even felt excited, thinking, "That's the same for me!" (I'm not copying him, haha.)
Right now, I am writing at my computer in the kitchen after the children have fallen asleep, but if I could, I would also like to write in the bright daytime rather than at night. I don't really know if I can write better that way, but it is certain that I feel better. And when I feel better, it is more fun to write.
I am happy to find that I have something in common with a literary master regarding my approach to writing. I am taking the liberty of being delighted.